According to sources close to Sheep Esports, Erik “
penny” Penny is set to become the fifth player for
Apeks heading into the second split of
VCT EMEA, following Peter “Governor” No’s departure at the end of the previous split. Aliaksander “
SimonD4rk” Skoubel,
who had been reported by Sheep Esports a few weeks ago as joining the roster, will ultimately not be part of the lineup, but an update is expected in the future.
This move signals a shift to Europe for
the Canadian Duelist, who recently stood in for Team Liquid at Masters Toronto. He filled in for Ayaz “nAts” Akhmetshin during the team’s opening match against Bilibili Gaming due to a visa issue. Penny also played in Liquid’s two remaining matches, with one map against MIBR and one versus Paper Rex. It was a solid international debut that built on the strong form he showed with YFP in NA Challengers this year.
Despite a shaky start to the year, his 2025 season truly took off during Stage 2 of the North American league. He helped YFP secure a fourth-place finish, just shy of the podium. The team notably took down TSM and Cubert Academy (Sentinels’ second team) in the playoffs to claim that spot. On the stat sheet, penny ranked among the most impactful players in the event, averaging 252.7 ACS across 505 rounds played.
According to our sources, he’s now set to make his debut in top-tier European
VALORANT starting July 16, when the next VCT EMEA split kicks off. After a rough start to the season — finishing 9-12th at Kickoff and 11-12th in Split 1 — Apeks is still searching for the right formula. With the departure of Governor and Ava “florescent” Eugene (the latter replaced by Diogo “OLIZERA” Oliveira), penny becomes the new North American import tasked with helping the Norwegian org turn things around.
